A cryptocurrency mining company led by Eric Trump has seen more than $600 million evaporate from the market value of his stake over 10 months, culminating in an emergency reverse stock split this week to avoid being delisted from the Nasdaq.
Eric Trump serves as chief strategy officer of American Bitcoin Corp., which he co-founded and helped take public. His roughly 6% stake in the firm has plummeted more than 95% in value since shares peaked in September. His brother Donald Trump Jr. also serves as an adviser to the company. The stock hit an all-time low on Wednesday, July 8,2026 and shares have fallen approximately 77% for the year.
The company was forced to execute a 1-for-15 reverse stock split — consolidating every 15 shares into a single share — simply to maintain its Nasdaq listing. The dramatic intervention came as the firm’s share price continued its freefall, a collapse driven by its failure to adapt as the broader mining sector pivoted to capitalize on artificial intelligence demand.
The AI Pivot That Never Came
While rival mining companies repositioned themselves to serve the surging AI market, American Bitcoin held firm to its original Bitcoin strategy. Firms including Riot Platforms, MARA Holdings, Cipher Digital, and TeraWulf began leasing their computing infrastructure to AI-focused data centers, repurposing their electricity, land, and hardware. Their stocks have gained more than 60% on average this year.
American Bitcoin did not follow that path, instead continuing to accumulate Bitcoin through the downturn. Success in the mining sector increasingly depends on the flexibility to monetize computing infrastructure across multiple markets, and the company’s refusal to pivot has left it exposed.
Mounting Losses and a Defiant Message
American Bitcoin reported an $81.8 million net loss in the first quarter, driven largely by a decline in the value of its Bitcoin holdings. The firm holds around 8,000 BTC, worth roughly $504 million as of Wednesday, which ranks it as the 16th-largest corporate Bitcoin holder. That stockpile has not been enough to reassure investors watching the share price deteriorate in real time.
At a Las Vegas crypto conference in April, Eric Trump said, “Just hold on, guys. Just hold on.” That message — directed at retail investors who have watched their holdings sink alongside the company’s share price — has become an emblem of a strategy that many in the market now view as stubbornly misaligned with where capital is flowing.
The Context and the Timing
Eric Trump posted an effusive tribute to his father on X in the early hours of Thursday morning, July 9, celebrating the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport in President Donald Trump’s honor. Less than two hours later, a Bloomberg report landed with a far different story: his cryptocurrency venture had wiped more than $600 million from the Trump family’s holdings in the span of 10 months.
Eric Trump had spent months spearheading the campaign to rename the Florida airport as President Donald J. Trump International Airport, and he was on hand when Trump Force One touched down on July 9 to make it official. As he wrote on X, Eric Trump expressed his profound honor at being present when Trump Force One became the inaugural aircraft to arrive at the airport’s 5:01 a.m. unveiling under its new permanent designation honoring his father. The post was celebratory, warm, and conspicuously timed — arriving just before the damaging financial news became public.
Retail Investors Caught in the Fallout
The losses at American Bitcoin stand in sharp contrast to the broader crypto gains enjoyed by the wider Trump orbit. President Trump reported cryptocurrency-related income exceeding $1.4 billion during the previous year. The divergence underscores how differently the family’s various crypto ventures have fared — and how much of the downside has concentrated specifically around Eric Trump’s leadership of American Bitcoin.
Retail investors who bought into American Bitcoin on the strength of its high-profile backers have absorbed significant losses as the stock has cratered. The company’s trajectory — a rapid rise following its public debut, followed by a collapse that forced an emergency reverse stock split — traces a familiar arc for crypto ventures that attracted attention because of celebrity association rather than financial fundamentals. The $600 million figure reflects the decline in market value of Eric Trump’s stake and does not represent cash losses from selling shares — he has not sold. Whether the company can reverse course by pivoting toward AI infrastructure or finding another path to profitability remains, for now, an open question.
